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Description

Queerly Represent Me is a not-for-profit registered in QLD, Australia. We are a research organisation and consultancy agency who works with game developers, event organisers, and workplaces to improve their representation and company culture. We use proceeds from these paid contracts to provide free public resources and services, to give a voice to underrepresented developers, and to support the creation of queer content.

We approach our work with a three-tier foundation: representation, education, and elevation. We aim to help individuals familiarise themselves with and access more texts that represent them, to educate individuals and companies using free resources and individualised consultations, and to help aspiring marginalised creators find the confidence to pursue successful careers.

Ongoing discussion around representation and diversity is vital, and Queerly Represent Me seeks to be a key voice within this conversation.

Our Mission

Representation

We want to help marginalised people feel seen in games and the games industry.

Education

We want to help everyone understand how to ensure their games, workplaces, and events are as inclusive and accessible as possible.

Elevation

We want to spotlight marginalised voices and help people make valuable connections.

Outreach »Additional outreach programs and exhibitions, used to connect the public to queer games and developers.

History

Queerly Represent Me was founded in May 2016. Our initial goal was to create a database of games that feature queer content publicly available, to help researchers and players find these games. In November 2016, the database expanded from the original 'visual database' to also include a spreadsheet version, which allowed for great statistical analysis of the representation listed in the database. This led to a stronger focus on research and statistics, and was followed by Queerly Represent Me conducting our 'Representations of Diversity in Games survey' in February 2017.

In March 2017, Queerly Represent Me rebranded. We included more user-friendly features (such as a better search function and the consolidation of landing pages), a nicer aesthetic (trust us, it's much prettier now), and a new logo. This rebranding extended to items like business cards, badges, and stickers, as well as merchandise available on our merch store. This allowed for increased visibility of the Queerly Represent Me brand, as well as further marketing opportunities.

We have continued to launch new initiatives since then. Some have succeeded and are regularly updated (like our interview series and Jess's Queer Games Journey) and others were pilot programs that didn't succeed how we intended (like our podcast and the second edition of our zine). Our failures help us learn and we will not be discouraged; we will keep trying new things just in case they help us strike gold!

Queerly Represent Me began trading as a not-for-profit and charity on July 1, 2018, a day which was marked by a launch event held at Bar SK in Melbourne, Australia. We currently do not have deductible gift receipient status, but we're working on it.

There are many ways to use the spreadsheet database. Here are some suggestions:

Hover over each cell in the spreadsheet to see all of the information it contains.

Sort the spreadsheet columns by ascending or descending order by selecting the headings.

Filter the visible columns using the checkboxes at the top of the page. The default table includes columns for Title, Year, Developer, Publisher, Genre, and Platform/s, but these can be hidden and there are more options available.

Filter by any genre, developer, publisher, type of representation, etc. by clicking it within the spreadsheet. (If you can't find the label that you're looking for, try using Ctrl-F / Cmd-F.)

Discover interesting patterns, such as how many games with queer content have been released so far this year, or how many have been released by a particular developer.

Marvel at the pretty data.

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A word about categories:

The following categories have been used to sort protagonists / player characters, NPCs, and other references:

Combining 'Asexual' and 'Aromantic' isn't ideal. Unfortunately, the games we are categorising often conflate these identities, which makes it hard for us to separate them when categorising. We will happily separate these two representations as soon as the games we are categorising are also making clearer distinctions.

Using a 'Bisexual / plurisexual' label doesn't explicitly name a number of other multiple-gender attracted identities, but it's hard to create shorthand for labels like these. We see you pansexuals, omnisexuals, queer folks, and other non-monosexual folks, and we love you.

Our 'Nonbinary / non-conforming' label unfortunately isn't full of perfect representations of nonbinary folks. Other identities are included in there—like genderqueer and genderfluid—as are other gender ambiguous but-not-explicitly-nonbinary representations. We are considering how we might be able to make more distinctions between these categories in future.

Thank you for understanding that the delicate balance between quantitatively 'useful' categories and all-inclusive categories is a really tricky one to navigate. If you do have any concerns, please feel free to contact us.

There are many ways to use the visual database. Here are some suggestions:

Browse all games: You can browse all games in our database on a single page or in a paginated view.

Categories: You can explore games that represent queer themes in our key categories of ‘sexuality’, ‘gender’, and ‘relationships’.

Search: You can use our search function to look for a particular game, representation, genre, developer, or any other keyword that interests you.

Randomise: You can use our randomise function to find out more about a random game in our database.